On March 16, 2011, Portland State University student Rachel Cain had a telephone conversation with a PSU library employee concerning a library policy. Cain was not satisfied and left a phone message for the employee, criticizing the employee’s professionalism. Cain was later notified that her phone call had been reported to PSU’s student life office, and on March 23, Cain was charged with “Obstruction or Disruption of University Activity or Process” and “Failure to comply with a University Official’s requests.” She was found responsible for both charges, charged a $10 discipline fee, and asked to sign a “Behavioral Agreement.” Cain […]

(10) Sexual harassment, defined as unwanted and unwelcome sexual advances or requests for sexual favors and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature where:

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(c) such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's academic or work performance, or of creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive educational or working environment.

1. Eligibility for funding from Student Fees requires the activity, program, or service to satisfy the requirements in one of the following three categories (OAR 580-010-0090):

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b) Educational, Cultural, and Student Government Activities. Programs or activities in this category must fulfill the requirements of one of the following four groups:

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iii) Student publications. All such publications must have the written endorsement of the Publications Board of Portland State University, which serves as publisher of all student publications. The Publications Board shall evaluate and make recommendations concerning publications and their budget requests;

What if someone you barely know, who believes in the healing power of angels and ‘the Violet Ray,’ tells an influential person that you have uttered a horrible threat — but you haven’t? And when police come knocking at your door as you sit eating lunch and watching the Colbert Report, you are so taken aback by the fact that they are evacuating your building that you can’t answer their questions coherently? Now imagine that these same officers have handcuffed you in your own home and are suggesting that you are a homicidal maniac, and would you be willing to […]

A Portland State University graduate student expelled after allegedly threatening violence against a faculty member wants to return to the university. Henry Liu has filed for an administrative review of his expulsion. A hearing is set for Aug. 3 in a case that raises questions about the balance between student rights and campus safety in an era of school shootings at both the high school and university level. The university banned Liu, who was in the conflict resolution program, from campus this spring after a classmate reported to police that the student was upset with a professor and talked about […]

Henry Liu was a promising graduate student in Portland State University’s conflict resolution program. He had excellent grades, with law school on the horizon. But his academic career swiftly derailed last spring after he confided to a classmate that he was upset with a faculty member and mentioned guns in the same conversation. Liu’s classmate told campus police that her friend felt a lot of hatred and said of one assistant professor, “He could get shot.” Liu, a gun enthusiast, denies making any such threat and says he never intended to harm anyone. Yet Portland State officials took swift and decisive […]

In the middle of an unusually warm February earlier this year, the talk all over campus was OSPIRG. For the past three years, the activist group has wrangled with student government over how much money would be allocated to their efforts at PSU. This year, after two hours of deliberation OSPIRG got its answer. No large increase, no large payout. Student government again was not swayed by the group’s impassioned pleas for funding and sent them packing with thousands less than they had asked for. Students came pouring out of the meeting crying, aghast that their efforts had failed for […]

The Portland State Vanguard reported last week on a controversy at Portland State University (PSU) between PSU’s College Republicans and the school’s Muslim Students Association (MSA). The MSA and other students criticized two events sponsored by the College Republicans in May—a visiting speaker’s lecture and a movie screening—as being anti-Islam, and they asked the PSU administration to address their concerns. However, the university administrators, to their credit, took the opportunity to remind students that the First Amendment protects speech even when it is offensive or hurtful to some. The Vanguard gets to the heart of the matter: " We met […]

This week, FIRE was quoted in two newspaper articles covering the story of a Portland State University graduate student, Henry Liu, who was expelled from the university last month for allegedly constituting a campus threat. As The Oregonian reports, Liu was expelled for allegedly expressing frustration about a faculty member to a classmate and mentioning firearms in the same conversation: Liu’s classmate told police he vented loudly about the conflict resolution program and its chairman, Robert Gould, saying, “I’m about ready to stick a .45 in his ass.” She said that Liu had complained about his chronic back problem and sleeplessness, and that he […]

I’m pleased to announce that Portland State University (PSU) student Rachel Cain’s record has been wiped clean after she was initially found guilty of charges of “disruption” and “failure to comply” due to the content of a telephone conversation between Cain and an employee of PSU’s library system. Her case—like others we’ve seen at FIRE—is a useful reminder of why universities cannot hold students to the same speech standards to which they may hold their employees, a worrying trend on college campuses today. Here are the facts of Cain’s case. On March 16, 2011, Cain had a telephone conversation with […]